Comments about ‘Letter: We did build our businesses’

"President Obama's statement... is further evidence that, to him, the
federal government is a magical make-believe land where money grows endlessly on
trees."

That's nonsense. Nothing in either the complete
remarks from which this quote is taken, or from any action the president has
taken can be construed to show a disregard for the sources of federal revenue.

President Obama has, in fact, gone to great lengths to offer
proposals to shrink the deficit, but Republicans, adherents to Grover
Norquist's cult of fiscal fantasy, refuse to accept deficit reduction plans
offered to them because a small fraction of those plans also include closing
certain tax loopholes to increase tax revenue.

When businesses pay
their fair share of taxes, then yes, they are in fact helping themselves and
other businesses to succeed. And then what of when businesses pay little or no
taxes?

The point is that the taxes a business pays aren't put
into an earmarked account and spent exclusively on only those roads and other
infrastructure that directly benefit that business.

President
Obama's observation is completely valid - success in business requires both
individual initiative _and_ public infrastructure.

President Obama is saying the same thing: all of us contribute to the business
environment that breeds success. We contribute by paying taxes; we contribute by
supporting education; we contribute by mentoring young people. If we don't
all contribute, success for anyone becomes much more difficult.

I
am growing increasingly discouraged by Governor Romney's campaign which
appears to be focused on deliberately misconstruing meaning (see, also, the Ohio
voting rights issue) in order to create false issues. Frankly, I expect more
honesty from a former stake president.

Jan, Its clear you never listened to the speech. You just took the edited GOP
talking point and ran with it. Seriously, there are so many other points about
Obama you could discuss, bringing this up just brings the intelligence level of
political dialog down.

You really should listen to the speech or read the transcript of it, Jan. For,
the President was referring to public work projects built by the government on
behalf of the people. These are important public assets private providers would
not step up and build.

...and this letter is further evidence that a conservative who is still rankled
by Mr. Obama's election will distort every possible statement and ignore
every possible alternative explanation in an intellectually impoverished attempt
to denigrate a viewpoint with which he/she does not understand.

Mr.
Obama's point is that you did not create your business in a vacuum;
infrastructure, technology, the work of your teachers before you created an
atmosphere in which your hard work could yield results. He didn't say you
did not work hard or deserve success. Not sure why we're taking offense at
this, it is essentially complementing America. Which Obama apparently cannot do
because conservatives like to label him as an American-hater? You truly are
masters at spin. You know how to twist a quote. You know how to create
boogeymen. And you know how to repeat the lie over and over and over again.

Do you realize that in your perverse argument, you actually argue both sides of
the equation? Either you don't get the point of the President, or you are
engaged in a deliberate deception and misrepresentation. Which is it?

Here's the paragraph in which the dreaded quote is found. Might as well
have it in context:

"If you’ve been successful, you
didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own.
I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just
so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked
harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole
bunch of hardworking people out there. If you were successful, somebody along
the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.
Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that
allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve
got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that
happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research
created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the
Internet."

And some more text from the same speech which could probably also be interpreted
as anti-American if you are so inclined.

"The point is, is that
when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also
because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires,
we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire
service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.

"So
we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, you know what,
there are some things we do better together. That’s how we funded the G.I.
Bill. That’s how we created the middle class. That’s how we built
the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam. That’s how we invented the
Internet. That’s how we sent a man to the moon. We rise or fall together
as one nation and as one people, and that’s the reason I’m running
for President -- because I still believe in that idea. You’re not on your
own, we’re in this together."

Actually, in his world, all that money you paid in taxes belongs to the
government anyway along with the rest of your money. Whenever the government
lets you keep a little more of it, it is a "gift". Every tax cut is a
giveaway. Every attempt to let rich people keep a little more of it is an unfair
gift to those who don't deserve it.

All that money that Mitt
Romney earned really isn't his. It is the government's. Shame on him
for spending it (or storing it) in places that it's rightful owner (the
government) does not approve of. The only solution is to wrest more control over
it to its rightful owner by raising his taxes.

Once you understand
this mentality, President Obama's comments make perfect sense.

Great letter Jan! Obama doesn't understand fundamental economics in that if
the private sector isn't working, being successful and paying taxes, there
will be no money to pay the public sector. That means teachers, fireman,
policeman, etc will not get paid unless taxpayers in the private sector are
successful first and not the other way around!

Obama was saying that businesses didn't build the roads and bridges, that
gov't helps with things like infrastructure investments, and Romney
agrees.

Obama: "Somebody helped to create this unbelievable
American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in
roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.
Somebody else made that happen. ... The point is, is that when we succeed, we
succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things
together."

Romney: "I know that you recognize that a lot of
people help you in a business. Perhaps the banks, the investors. There's no
question your mom and dad. Your school teachers. The people that provide roads,
the fire, and the police. A lot of people help."

Or maybe we can
use an olympic one.

Romney: "You Olympians... know that you
didn't get here solely on your own power. For mot of you, loving parents,
sisters or brothers encouraged your hopes. Coaches guided. Communities built
venues and organized competitions. All Olympians stand on the shoulders of those
who lifted them."

It's been established repeatedly that President Obama was talking about
roads and infrastructure that most businesses can't survive without when he
said "you didn't built that." If you're going to criticize,
at least quote him correctly.

U.S. government research created the internet. Without that, Google, Ebay,
Amazon, Facebook, and thousands of other online businesses, would not exist.
President Obama nowhere suggested that the government created those businesses,
merely that the government created the conditions for them to come into being.
Which is a totally accurate statement.

Is "conservative" synomymous with "poor at math"? A single
business does NOT pay enough taxes to support an entire police force, fire
department, and supporting infrastructure. To quote another politician "It
takes a village".